‘The Naked Truth’ about degendering

In West Coast Swing (WCS) dancing, traditionally only men were permitted to lead and women to follow; however, since 2014 the degendering movement has sought to enable all dancers to participate in their preferred role and to remove gendered language from the discourse around leading and following. As part of a larger linguistic ethnography exploring (de)gendered language use in WCS contexts across Central Canada and the US Northeast and Midwest, this case study explores patterns of and factors contributing to the use and avoidance of gendered language in The Naked Truth, a podcast created by and for the WCS community. While the podcast hosts use the degendered terms ‘leader’ and ‘follower’, their differing but continued use of heteronormatively gendered pronouns in coreference with these neutral terms suggests that the speakers’ mental models remain gendered and that there is a continued need for representation of individuals dancing in nonheteronormative roles.